Locals being edged out of city politics

Non-local politicians are holding sway over Vizag politics with as many as four of the seven sitting MLAs hailing from neighbouring districts.

| TNN | Jan 3, 2013, 03:39 IST

VISAKHAPATNAM: Non-local politicians are holding sway over Vizag politics with as many as four of the seven sitting MLAs hailing from neighbouring districts. These are leaders who have either made the city their home or have astutely found it easy to win from here.
The port city has had its share of home-grown statesmen. While Sir Gode Gajapathi Rao was nominated to the Imperial Legislative Council in the 1880s, another Vizagite Sir BN Sarma was elected on a Congress ticket to the Viceroy's Executive council way back in the 1920s. Later, stalwarts such as Tenneti Viswanatham and Rajah P V G Raju of Vizianagaram dominated the local political scene for quite a while.

The paradigm shift in the power base began in the 80s when members of trading communities from central coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema and south coastal Andhra, who settled in Vizag in the 70s, made their presence felt. The Telugu Desam Party's (TDP) rise to power too accentuated the presence of politicians and public representatives from the central coastal belt, virtually dislodging the old guard from their own turf.

In the 80s, only three people native to the city showed the promise to climb greater heights - former mayor D V Subba Rao, Bhattam Sriram Murthy and Dronamraju Satyanarayana. However, it was clear to one and all that the power base was shifting steadily.

With the expansion of the Vizag port in the 80s and the construction of Visakhapatnam Steel Plant, people from different parts of the state made the City of Destiny their home and many of these were contractors, financiers and entrepreneurs. Vizag soon became of city of settlers.

Explaining the reasons for the shift, political analyst from Andhra University, professor K Ravi, said: "The members of the old guard either belonged to the feudal class or were legal luminaries. Today in a world dominated by the business class, it is only but natural that settlers who were into business filled the void as the surviving members of the old guard were either hit by land reforms or continued their careers as professionals. Moreover, if one were to look at the demographic composition of the city, a vast majority are people who trace their roots to other parts of Andhra Pradesh."

K S Sastry, a native of Vizag, noted, "Money plays such a huge role in electoral politics today, it has become virtually impossible for the natives to climb up the political ladder. More importantly, none of the native communities such as the Brahmins, Perikas, Jalaris, Padmasaalis and Yadavas are considered an important vote bank as the communities they belong to are neither rich nor sizeable in number."

On the influence of money in modern day politics, professor K Ravi said, "Today it has become an impossible task for people who are honest and not financially strong to make their mark in the political arena. Even political parties prefer people from financially sound backgrounds, especially those with a 'healthy' spending power."

Professor Ravi added that absence of money bags was one of the major factors that checked the likes of D V Subba Rao or Dronamraju from breaking into the big league, which they should have.

Many localites also bemoan the fall in standards in the field of politics. K S Sastry alleged, "It is not just the non-locals, even a vast majority of the locals in politics today are riff-raff."

However, Chintakayala Ayyanna Patrudu, senior TDP leader and a native of Visakhapatnam district, has a different take on the changing scenario. "It is true that many settlers have made it big as politicians in Visakhapatnam. One of the reasons for this is the apolitical attitude of certain members of the old families and their inability to change with changing times. It is precisely because of this reason that most cadre-based parties are now focusing on developing local leaders from the grassroots and the difference would be felt in the next 10 years," Patrudu said.

However, be that as it may, the fact that non-locals are at the helm of affairs in Visakhapatnam has proved to be a sore point for many who are proud to call themselves Vizagites.

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